Uber Investors force its CEO Travis Kalanick to resign

By Amina Faki

Travis Kalanick has stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer of Uber, that he helped found in 2009.

Kalanick’s exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber’s investors, wrote The New York Times.

According to The New York Times, five major investors in Uber demanded that the chief executive should resign immediately. They made their demand for Mr. Kalanick to step down in a letter to the chief executive while he was in Chicago.

“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investor’s request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” Mr. Kalanick said in a statement reported by The New York Times.

In a quest to build Uber into the world’s dominant ride-hailing entity, Mr. Kalanick has openly disregarded many rules and norms, backing down only when caught or cornered. He has flouted transportation and safety regulations, bucked against entrenched competitors and capitalized on legal loopholes and gray areas to gain a business advantage. In the process, Mr. Kalanick has helped create a new transportation industry, with Uber spreading to more than 70 countries and gaining a valuation of nearly $70 billion, and its business continues to grow.

The move to step down comes in after months of questions over the leadership of Uber, which has become a prime example of Silicon Valley startup culture gone awry.

This year the company has been exposed for having a workplace culture that includes sexual harassment and discrimination.

Kalanick’s departure comes after a lengthy investigation led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, wrote Reuters.

Uber hired Holder to look into its culture and workplace practices after a female former employee publicly accused the company of what she described as brazen sexual harassment.

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